Source:AOL Chat 2, 27 June 1996
AOL Chat #2 27 June 1996 was an interactive interview with Robert Jordan by AOL.com. People from around the world asked Jordan questions and he responded to them. ---- JVoegele: Mr. Jordan. were you rushed by publisher deadlines? RobtJordan: In a way. Not with the last book, certainly but THE EYE OF THE WORLD took 4 years to write. Each of the other books took 13 or 14 months but the publisher brought out the second book 10 months after the first and the following books at 12-month intervals. You can see there's a law of diminishing returns there. For this last book, I simply told them I could not do it again. A CROWN OF SWORDS took about 20 months to write, in fact. That's why the book didn't come out last fall or earlier in the spring. Jaw 707: '''what did you think about those folks arguing with you about YOUR characters? '''RobtJordan: Well, I'm sort of used to it. It's been going on for a long time now. Ealgail: '''ADMIT IT!!!!!! DASHIVA IS OSAN'GAR111111 '''RobtJordan: '''On the advice of my lawyer, I never admit anything. :) Not even to my wife! '''MRHowley: '''How old where you when you started writing? '''RobtJordan: '''I was 30 when I started writing. Maybe 29. I'd have to sit down and figure it out. It was a while ago. '''Anastin BW: '''Mr. Jordan, any idea who will be doing the art for the companion book? '''RobtJordan: '''An artist named Todd Hamilton is doing the work for the illustrated guide. '''Sheriam: '''Mr. Jordan? If I may? How did you develop the Language? '''RobtJordan: The words come partly from Gaelic, Russian, Arabic, Chinese, Japanese. The grammar and syntax I believe I invented myself although it's possible that another language usees the same. Of course, just as with English, I have deliberately put in some very illogical inconsistencies. Gaul Aiel: '''MR. JORDAN: Do you realize what you are putting us through with the time between books? '''RobtJordan: '''You guys get to sit around with your feet up between books! :) I bust my hump writing them. '''DayTripr1: '''And also is the Dark One the only source of the True Power? '''RobtJordan: Yes, the Dark One is the only source of the True Power. OpenStone: '''How difficult is it to get a major publisher like TOR to publish a novel, Mr. Jordan? '''RobtJordan: I forgot who asked this, but it wasn't difficult to get Tor to publish my first novel. Tom Doherty liked what I write. I've been writing for 20 years and I told him that I had an idea for a multi-volume book . I didn't know how many books and probably any other publishers would have thrown me out of his office but Tom said OK! 'Anastin BW: '''Mr Jordan, do you have any personal thoughts about people Role Playing in the world you have given us? '''RobtJordan: '''I have a standard letter that I send to people when they ask for permission to do role-playing, in which I grant them very limited permission to do this. It says, in effect, that you have permission to do it in this instance as long as you don't try to make a profit off of it. '''MRHowley: '''Where can you get the poster of the map on the jacket cover? '''RobtJordan: '''There may be a very few copies left of the poster at the publisher in NY. I don't know. I don't think they have any plans to sell it. There were a certain number made to give away during my last tour. Whether any remain is beyond me. I'm afraid I need to go now. Thanks to everyone for your interest! http://web.archive.org/web/19991002090008/www.princeton.edu/~abergman/jordan/chat4.txt or http://groups.google.com/group/rec.arts.sf.written.robert-jordan/msg/b65b73cb64833a6c ''Please note: This chat transcript and the one labeled 'AOL Chat 1 - 27 June 1996' have the same links because there were two separate chats included together, as is apparent from reading the end of the first chat transcript. Category:Chat sessions